medical care

You need some expensive medical care yet don’t have the insurance or money to pay for it. Should you use a medical credit card that’s pitched at some doctors’ offices? A new report by the nonprofit Consumer Action warns that some of these cards can be unhealthy for your finances. They usually offer a zero percent introductory rate, though after that period, card terms can vary greatly. The problem is that these terms often are difficult to uncover. So patients …

By Ankita Rao, Kaiser Health News Dr. Thomas Bellavia transformed his traditional medical practice in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., into a so-called medical home where patients are seen by teams of doctors and nurses. He says it has paid off in better, more coordinated care for his patients and healthier income for the nurse practitioners and physicians in his group. Dr. Mark Holthouse took a different tack – limiting his El Dorado, Calif., clinic to 400 patients a year, and adding services such as …

Hidalgo is a county in southern Texas just across the Rio Grande from Mexico. It’s also home to the highest prevalence of U.S. adults – about 40 percent of the population- delaying necessary medical care because of cost, according to data in the March 28 New England Journal of Medicine. The research letter in the March 28 issue of the journal found this number to vary significantly across the country and to be lower in places with less restrictive eligibility …

The medical delivery system is under pressure to provide quality health care despite these dire trends: · Reduced access because of the closing of community hospitals and low-cost clinics, · Staggering increases in the cost of drugs, medical treatment and insurance, · An increasing reluctance of HMO’s to refer patients to specialists, and · A dramatic increase in the number of uninsured, now estimated at 50 million and growing. I could also mention the loss of physicians who are retiring …

Doesn’t seem to make sense, but it’s actually becoming more and more common. While medical tourism has existing for some time — where Americans will travel abroad to other countries to get necessary medical treatment for cheaper — a new trend is growing in the U.S.: Domestic medical travel. Via AARP Bulletin: [A]s medical travel firms negotiate attractive rates with doctors, clinics and hospitals and market them to insurance companies, employer-funded health plans and individuals. While hospitals don’t like to …